3. Dopamine

It was one that left me shivering in February and my car fogged up in June.

It opens your eyes to how much you can let yourself fall and how willing you can be to hit the bottom.

Your awareness that the time frame is temporary is more of an attraction than anything.

It’s like watching a train wreck. It's gut-wrenching, but you just can’t turn away.

I don’t know what lesson I learned from this love, but I know I am a better person because of it.

4. The Game Changer

This is the person you accomplished so much with in such a short amount of time.

It's the one who you thought broke your heart, but who really showed you it wasn’t even pieced together.

You see, when you rely so heavily on someone else for your happiness, it's like a drug addiction.

When you're alone, you’re nervous, irritated and counting down the minutes until you get more of that person.

You crave the high, and it's just not healthy.

If I hadn't lost this love, gone through withdrawals and checked myself into emotional rehab, I would never have known my own happiness.

When the game changer enters my mind, I think, "Oh, we were lovely," and "You were what I needed, but not anymore."

This is another love that turned into friendship, the one you wave to across the room and drink milkshakes to for the nostalgia.

5. A Parent’s Selflessness

Now that I am through the angst of teenage years, I can appreciate the enormity of a parent’s sacrifices and love.

I’ve seen it with new mothers, parents who have switched off their child's life support and a mother who cooks, cleans and provides for her children instead of working a career she loves.

I have even been blessed to see it in my own parents, one working away to provide and one as a full-time carer of my sister.

I can see it there in the background, the hardworking and (most of the time) unnoticed love.

It's the kind that asks for nothing in return. It leaves me in awe.

These are the types of love I have endured, and this is why I am the way I am.

The point of me sharing this is that I'm now asking you to start a real conversation about love because it is an issue and deserves recognition.

Notice the love surrounding you.

There is love in someone saying, “Text me when you're home safe,” when someone looks after you when you have had one too many glasses of wine, when you get a hug and even when you get things like postcards or Facebook wall posts.

Sometimes, you are heartbroken or lose a loved one, move away or simply just go through a hell of a lot with love.